Piano sounding-board



(No Model.)

A. J. DEWING. PIANO SOUNDING BOARD.

Patented Jan. 21,1890.

It PETERS, Phow-Lnhognphtr. Wnhinglm. n. C

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AMASA J. DEWING, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

PIANO SOUNDlNG-BOARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 419,842, dated January21, 1890.

Application filed September 24, 1889. Serial No. 324,947 (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AMASA J. DEWING, a citizen of the United States,residing in the city and county of San Francisco, State of California,have invented an Improvement in Piano Sounding-Boards; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of thesame.

My invention relates to an improvement in sounding-boards for pianos andit consists in certain details of construction which will be more fullyexplained by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which the figureis a front view of the soundingboard of an upright piano, showing theconstruction and the position of the bridges upon the board.

In the usual construction of piano sounding-boards they are made ofselected spruce or pine out into narrow strips having parallel sides,these strips being glued together until a board of sufficient size hasbeen formed, and the board is further strengthened by suitablecross-braces secured upon its back. The method ofapplying the strings tothe piano is such as to obtain a proper length of strings for thevarious portions of its register from the lowest bass to the highesttreble, and the construction of the sounding-board before described issuch that the boards become very short at either end.

My invention is designed to give a greater length and a correspondingimprovement to the tone at that portion of the soundingboard upon whichthe bridges supporting the bass and longer strings of the piano arefixed; and it consists in making a central portion of the sounding-boardof strips which are narrower at one end than the other, so as togradually change the direction of the strips and bring those toward thelower end of the sounding-board into such a position as to extend fromside to side instead of diagonally.

A A are the narrow bars or strips forming that portion of asounding-board of a piano which carries the bridges for the shorter ortreble strings, and B are the sections forming the central portion ofthe soundingboard. These sections 13 are made tapering or fan shaped,being from one to one and a half inch in width at the lower end and fromsix to seven inches in width at the upper ends. By this construction itwill be manifest that this portion of the soundingboard becomesfan-shaped, and the lines upon which the edges of the strips forming theboard are joined will be gradually changed to a position approximatelyparallel with the horizontal bottom edge of the soundingboard.

0 O are the lowermost strips which complete the sounding-board, and itwill be seen that by this construction these strips are brought to aposition nearly or quite parallel with the lower edge of the board, andconsequently have a length in the direction of the grain of the woodmuch greater than if the stripswere all of the same width and werecarried diagonally across the board parallel with the strips A A. Uponthese lowermost strips 0 are placed the bridges D, which carry the bassand lower middle register strings of the instrument, and it will be seenthat an increase of tone will be produced by thus lengthening theselower boards in the direc tion of the grain of the wood.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a sounding-board, the strips from which the board is made up,having one end made narrower than the other, so that the direction ofthe grain of the wood is changed from one side of the board to theother, substantially as herein described.

2. In a sounding-board, the strips A, I3,

and O, glued together to form a board, a portion of said strips beingmade fan-shaped or Wider at one end than the other, substantially asherein described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

AMASA J. DEWING.

Witnesses:

S. H. Nounsn, H. 0. LEE.

